Computer restored Open Thread

My computer was giving me problems all this week, which slowed me down and, eventually, stopped me altogether. The computer finally is back up and running now, thanks to an old friend who’s a very good tech guru. Now, though, I have to run, since my Mom has a doctor’s appointment. I’ll be back in a few hours and I hope that, by then, I have something interesting to say. If not, well . . . I guess we all get our mental “down” days.

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IN THE NEWS, BUT NOT THE KNOW.
No surprise that Obama extended a decision on the XL pipeline until next year. I was just wondering how many splinters can you get from “sitting on a fence” and just how many splinters does it take to make you a puppet?

Book has transcended human specs, she has exceeded the speed of silicon processors!

In many ways, the Left is like a computer that refuses to do what you want it to do, and thinks it owns you as a result.

JKB

A grim discussion but one that those give perspective. In this case, a discussion of the Civil War battlefield casualties in relation to the normal variations of the death rate at that time. The average annual battlefield deaths (62,500) were only 7 to 10% increase over the normal death rates.

This is not to be morbid but rather to highlight how far we have come, Americans and humanity, in the intervening years. Not only have we improved our lot with sewerage and vaccinations, but the resulting decline in the natural death rates brings in high relief the deaths caused by war. Now that even a small number of battlefield casualties rise above the routine death rate, it is unlikely that populations will tolerate the follies of statesmen and their penchant for war. Even 100 years ago, nations tolerated tens of thousands of war deaths (every day in some battles) but such commanders and national leaders today would find themselves without public support today.

jj

I don’t know about that, JKB. That’s the kind of Pollyannish nonsense that leads to Pearl Harbor and gets you into trouble fast. We think that way; and with the destruction of our military I guess it’s to be hoped that so do the Norks, the Chinese, and the various and sundry assorted rag-heads that constitute Islam. I don’t know that I’d be all-in on that particular bet, though. As Shitforbrains Kerry is finding out, there seem to be a lot of unenlightened folks around whose world view remains stubbornly 19th venture.

JKB

JJ,

No doubt that there are many who aren’t against starting something. Many of our own “intellectuals”. But the lack of acclimatization to such death, the idea even in most totalitarian countries that the people “get a vote”, means that we are unlikely to have to suffer through another European folly like WWI. WWII was just the Europeans trying one more thing.

I worry about the morons on the “Continent”. They Europeans as a people have proven themselves to be eager to wipe out whole generations in their hope to remain under the thumb of their “betters”. We may not be done, yet. But my view, and I think I could sell it, is that we, America, have to save them from their follies again, they don’t get their freedom back. Three tries and they are out.

I don’t think Putin will go to open warfare but he will continue his march as long as the Progs control the governments.

Americans are coming home in body bags from Afghanistan. Do you refuse to call that a problem because it’s not on the level of WWI?

What do you think Benghazi was, it’s a test to see how many people can be killed and disappeared without the public realizing it.

JKB

There are many problems with Afghanistan. Americans dying is one of them. But that is not the point of the article or the discussion.

Do you think the MSM could be hiding the continuing casualties in AF if they were occurring at 10,000 a day (or whatever the equivalent proportion of the population would be)

More importantly, any “leader” or government that started such casualties would surely fall with the “elite” swinging from the lampposts. Their is an alternative but it requires removing from the population all memory of freedom of speech, freedom of protest, and the other liberties now in the human memory.

They don’t need to kill 10,000. They just need to disappear the leaders and the rest will obey the example.

Danny Lemieux

Before people get too bent out of shape about Putin and the Russians, let’s not forget that the combined GDPs of the United States and EU are about 12x that of Russia. We and the EU have many weaknesses, ’tis true, but Russia has many, many weaknesses as well…even if they do form an axis with the Iranians and Chinese.

SADIE

Life expectancy isn’t anything to brag about either in Russia.
A twenty-year-old Russian male has just a 63% chance of reaching age 60, while his counterpart in the EU has a 90% chance of doing so.
Nevertheless, Russia’s GDP weaknesses do not include giving a damn, nor does China and Iran. IMO, I don’t believe the current POTUS does either. What they all lack in charm offensive, they more than over-compensate in the Department of Ego & Ego Maniacs.

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